Pasadena Ca Suits

Lawyers representing the family of a man who died in police custody last month after he was shot with a stun gun and hogtied in the back of a police car have filed claims against three cities whose police officers participated in his arrest. The family of Michael James Bryant, a popular Pasadena barber, asks for damages "in excess of $200 million," according to papers filed with the city clerks of Los Angeles, Pasadena and San Marino.

The City Council has agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars to settle a claim by the city's affirmative action director, who alleged that he faced discrimination because of his work. The settlement involving director Lance Charles is valued at more than $300,000, city officials said. Under the settlement, the city will invest $150,000 in an account from which Charles will be paid $3,300 a month beginning in April 2008, said City Atty. Michele Beal Bagneris.

One of four women lawyers in the Pasadena city attorney's office suing the city for sexual discrimination has settled for $75,000 plus a pay raise, officials confirmed Friday. The settlement with Assistant City Atty. Carolyn Y. Williams was approved by the Pasadena City Council on Monday and is much more than the $20,000 the city offered Williams in September. Williams attorney, Joe Hopkins, would not say how large a raise his client would receive but said it would be substantial.

A secretary in Pasadena's Department of Water and Power, whose recent claim of sexual harassment against a high-ranking official there led to his demotion, has sued the city, making new allegations that its top brass retaliated against her after she filed the complaint.

A top deputy in the Los Angeles city attorney's office has filed a claim against the Pasadena City Council, alleging that the panel violated her civil rights when it gave her the job of city attorney and then withdrew the offer after her bankruptcy filings came to light.

Officials in Pasadena lacked sufficient evidence and should reconsider their 1987 firing of Police Officer James Ballestero, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe has ruled. In his Tuesday ruling in a Ballestero's lawsuit against the city, Yaffe said he could find "no substantial evidence" that the officer used excessive force in arresting Steve Rivers and Michael Zinzun during a violent confrontation in 1986 with residents of the Community Arms apartment complex.

The City of Pasadena has agreed to an out-of-court settlement that will provide community activist Michael Zinzun, blinded in one eye in a violent confrontation with police, with up to $1.2 million over the next 35 years. Under the settlement, one of the largest in the city's history, Zinzun and his family will get $250,000 in cash immediately and a $300,000 annuity that will provide them with $1,750 a month for up to 35 years.

A jury has awarded $100,000 to a deaf Van Nuys man jailed overnight in Pasadena by police officers who failed to provide him with a sign language interpreter so he could communicate effectively. Jeno Koth, 32, who sued the Police Department for false imprisonment, emotional distress and violation of his civil rights, said he was pleased with the panel's decision, reached April 30 in Alhambra Superior Court.

Pasadena barber Michael James Bryant, who was involved in a car chase and struggle with police last month, died of "cocaine intoxication and asphyxiation from restraint procedures," a coroner's spokesman said Wednesday. Bryant had a potentially lethal level of cocaine in his blood when he died shortly after 1 a.m. March 9, but the coroner described the death as a homicide, said spokesman Scott Carrier.

Los Angeles Police Department officials said Thursday that they are getting closer to finding Pasadena Police Sgt. Paul Gales' son. Authorities said they believe 3-year-old Paul Gales, Jr. was abducted by his mother, Loistine Drake, on Valentine's Day during a monitored visit at the Los Angeles Zoo. Drake is being investigated by the LAPD for violation of a court order that mandates all contact with her son be monitored. "We're getting some clues that she may try to contact us," said LAPD Det.